A Switchboard for the Portland Meat Collective

Some of our favorite Switchboard posts in the past few weeks have come from one of our newest Switchboards—posts like “First time at-home slaughter/butcher,” “Defrosting and butchering a small pig,” and “CATTAIL CREEK LAMB CARCASS” [exciting all caps in original].

These are all posts from the Meat Collectives Switchboard, which we recently launched in collaboration with the Portland Meat Collective, a network of butchers that connects farmers and consumers and teaches butchery to hundreds of interested people every year.

The Meat Collectives Switchboard is already connecting foodies to farmers and butchery novitiates to experienced butchers.

Portland Meat Collective Founder Camas Davis says she is grateful for the work the Meat Collectives Switchboard does in connecting members of the local butchery community. “For five years I’ve written hundreds of emails like this: ‘Joe Smith, meet Jennifer Davis. Jennifer Davis, meet Joe Smith. You two don’t know each other but you should. Joe wants X. Jennifer has X.  Oh and by the way I know ten other people who you both should meet, too. Talk among yourselves,’” Camas says. “While it’s a great pleasure to write emails like this every day, Switchboard has the power to do this times 5000. I am no longer the sole connector in my community. Now I am one of many. And the effect on my community is vast.”

The Meat Collectives Switchboard is our first community that brings producers, artisans, and consumers all to the same place, and we’re learning a lot from its users. Meat Collective Switchboarders have concrete questions (how do I butcher a pig), needs (I need a pig), and resources (I have a pig). As users ask and answer questions, their conversations remain for users with the same question in the future to find and use. We look forward to seeing the Meat Collectives Switchboard grow.

Photos by Portland Meat Collective and Camas Davis.

A Switchboard for Oberlin

We’re happy to announce that we’re officially partnering with Oberlin College. Oberlin is a top-ranked liberal arts college and world-renowned conservatory (and they have an awesome library, as seen above). This is a big deal for us! We’ve harbored a liberal arts school crush on Oberlin for some time, and we’ve always admired their creative use of storytelling and social networks to engage the world and their own community.

We’re excited to see how Oberlin students and alumni use the Oberlin Switchboard. We hope that Switchboard will, by helping Obies help one another, make it clear to the world just how special the Oberlin community is. And more concretely, of course, we hope that Obies rack up as many Switchboard successes as possible.

Oberlin students and alumni are already posting asks, offers, and successes on the Oberlin Switchboard about jobs, internships, places to stay, and places for their chickens to stay. Yup, chickens. This is why we love Oberlin.

Ma’ayan Plaut, Oberlin’s Manager of Social Strategy and Projects, is as excited about this partnership as we are. “The most brilliant part of watching Switchboard take shape here in Oberlin is watching peoples’ faces as they begin to understand the potential of a committed helpful community. Simply put, it makes sense for a community that believes in each other to believe that in order to change the world, we have to be there for each other to make it happen,” Ma’ayan says. “We’ve only just begun our time with Switchboard and we’ve already seen connections forged over food, animals, travel, and art. That’s the Oberlin ethos is action, and we can’t wait to see where things go next!”

So thank you, Oberlin. You’re an ideal community for us to learn from. Every success on the Oberlin Switchboard makes us feel even more warm fuzzies than usual.

Mudd Library photo by istolethetv.

Switchboard Success: Community & Hosiery

When we highlight our users’ success stories, we tend to focus on the ones that seem the biggest—typically stories about someone landing a job or internship. Every now and then, though, a story too good to pass up comes along, and we have to share it. This story, about Lai and two pairs of American Apparel hosiery, is one of those.

First, a little background from Lai herself. Lai posted her Offer on the Reed Switchboard—she graduated from Reed College in 2013. For her, American Apparel hosiery bear a special association with her college experience. “First, I want to emphasize that this is American Apparel hosiery,” she says. “I was introduced to American Apparel via a Reed friend, who was a huge fan of their basics. Of course, I had the option of shoving them on to whoever is next to me in New York, but I felt like a Reedie would appreciate it more.”

At Reed, there’s an annual dance where students, many of them clad in tights, cover one another in glitter. “I wanted another Reedie who appreciates our tradition of tights and glitter to have my extra hosiery,” Lai says.

When a fellow Reedie contacted Lai, they arranged to meet in Bryant Park for the exchange.

There, in front of the Bryant Statue, Lai gave away the hosiery. “The handing over of the hosiery was over in a matter of seconds,” Lai says. “I gave them to her in a brown Zara bag and said she could check the contents if she wished. She said it was ok, and thanked me before rapidly walking off with her friend.”

If only for a moment, a spark of recognition passed between Lai and the recipient of the hosiery—the leggings, the memories of glitter. That spark reconnected Lai to her college community and made a small patch of Bryant Park feel, for an instant, like home.

Lai encourages other members of her community to reconnect with one another, as well. “I would encourage everyone to use Switchboard! Reed friendships are very special,” she says. “Give everything and anything! Rather than hoard something, pass it on.”

You don’t need to find a job or internship through a member of your community to feel gratitude, to feel that you’re a part of the whole. Sometimes it only takes a few pairs of tights.

Photo of Bryant Park by Dan DeLuca.

Switchboard Success: Josie Finds Interviewees on the Wheelwomen Switchboard

Last month, we launched the Wheelwomen Switchboard—a Switchboard for cyclists who identify as women nationwide. (You can read more about it in the Oregonian and BikePortland.) Since its inception, dozens of wheelwomen have posted asks and offers, and logged successes. This is just one of those success stories.

Josie posted an Ask on the Wheelwomen Switchboard a few weeks ago looking for people to interview for her blog, Life on Two Wheels. Josie uses her blog to chronicle her own adventures in the bike world, but also as a place for other cyclists to share their experiences. “My hope is that the stories will inspire others to get on a bike,” Josie says.

Josie’s Ask has led to two interviews with other wheelwomen so far: Emily, from Marin County, California, and Whitney from Seattle.

Josie says that the Wheelwomen Switchboard makes it easy for her not just to interact with other like-minded wheelwomen, but to inspire members of the community in turn. “I’m somewhat shy in real life, but online I’m much more outgoing,” she says. “It’s been very positive to ‘meet’ new people and make new friends. The stories that I’ll be sharing (and have shared) are really great and I hope will inspire other people as much as they have inspired me.”

For Josie, Switchboard’s strengths are its simplicity, its scope, and its ability to bring members of a loosely connected community together. “It was easy to step into and use. Not only getting responses but finding other topics to chime in on,” Josie says. The Wheelwomen community is spread out across the country and bound together only by its members’ mutual love of biking. Switchboard gives its members a place to connect in collaborative, meaningful ways. “The bike riding community isn’t just in ‘one town’ but it’s all over. Everyone has something they can bring to the table and share!”